Thick parts of the arctic ice caps are melting faster and in the long run can cause some serious problems. Thicker ice that is known as multi-ice which stays throughout summer and young ice is what forms over winter and then melts away during summer. NASA has been researching ice caps and has found that multi-ice is basically not keeping up to what it used to do. Multi-ice is staring to diminish through the winter months which can be a serious problem. Researchers show that in the winter of 2008 reduced about 55 percent since they began studying this in 1970. In 2012 the ice has reached its second lowest extent ever!
Salinity plays a huge role within the different types of ice. For example multi ice has less salt levels the young ice. Young ice has more salt because it has not had a long enough period of time to drain out all of its salts. When these melt it winds up pushing currents throughout the ocean because of the dense cold salt water. What can potentially happen is when ice that is on solid land melts it could collapse and wind up causing sea levels to rise up dramatically. In this theory it would be from Greenland and Antarctica. With the sea ice melting faster than we expected, the melting of this ice can wind up causing further warming leading to ice melt. Salinity levels will increase majorly at first especially because it will be all of the young ice followed by the multi-ice. Animals that are used to the surface sea ice are affected majorly by this. For example polar bears and penguins hunt on this surface ice and with it starting to diminish the food chain is also going to be effected by this in the long run.
With warming causes like this, researchers say that eventually this can turn around and impact the Arctic as well as global climate. With oceans becoming warmer than normal and ice thinning more than ever seen, more solar energy is obtained from the sun which is causing more ice to be melting. Less ice that planet earth has means the more open water it will have as well. Then the water will cause the ocean to warm up entirely more. Ice is a big deal, it keeps the temperature change, salinity levels were they should be, and as well as effects our animals as well. Salinity levels are changing all of the time especially with the current but, with the ice caps melting this will begin to causes some problems in the long run with the salinity levels of the ocean as a whole.
Melting Ice Caps Affects on Salinity
Thick parts of the arctic ice caps are melting faster and in the long run can cause some serious problems. Thicker ice that is known as multi-ice which stays throughout summer and young ice is what forms over winter and then melts away during summer. NASA has been researching ice caps and has found that multi-ice is basically not keeping up to what it used to do. Multi-ice is staring to diminish through the winter months which can be a serious problem. Researchers show that in the winter of 2008 reduced about 55 percent since they began studying this in 1970. In 2012 the ice has reached its second lowest extent ever!
Salinity plays a huge role within the different types of ice. For example multi ice has less salt levels the young ice. Young ice has more salt because it has not had a long enough period of time to drain out all of its salts. When these melt it winds up pushing currents throughout the ocean because of the dense cold salt water. What can potentially happen is when ice that is on solid land melts it could collapse and wind up causing sea levels to rise up dramatically. In this theory it would be from Greenland and Antarctica. With the sea ice melting faster than we expected, the melting of this ice can wind up causing further warming leading to ice melt. Salinity levels will increase majorly at first especially because it will be all of the young ice followed by the multi-ice. Animals that are used to the surface sea ice are affected majorly by this. For example polar bears and penguins hunt on this surface ice and with it starting to diminish the food chain is also going to be effected by this in the long run.
With warming causes like this, researchers say that eventually this can turn around and impact the Arctic as well as global climate. With oceans becoming warmer than normal and ice thinning more than ever seen, more solar energy is obtained from the sun which is causing more ice to be melting. Less ice that planet earth has means the more open water it will have as well. Then the water will cause the ocean to warm up entirely more. Ice is a big deal, it keeps the temperature change, salinity levels were they should be, and as well as effects our animals as well. Salinity levels are changing all of the time especially with the current but, with the ice caps melting this will begin to causes some problems in the long run with the salinity levels of the ocean as a whole.
Works Citied
Rani , G. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/thick-melt.html
(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.neaq.org/conservation_and_research/climate_change/climate_change_and_the_oceans.php
Jenner, L. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2003/1023esuice.html
-Michael Pillar